Hello,

I’ve got a 1986 Yamaha XT600 (43f) and I’ve been having some ignition issues with it.

I’ve replaced the ignition coil to no avail, and now have moved on to checking my source and pick-up coil resistances. My source coil is reading 159 ohms, and my pick-up coil is reading 232 ohms. According to my manual (Clymer) the source coil should be reading between 160-240 ohms - so I think that’s functioning okay, be it a tad on the low side. But my pick-up coil is meant to be between 90-129 ohms… obviously my reading of 232 ohms is a lot higher. My main query is whether this would cause the problems as follows:

1) Cold starting has started to be more difficult and when it has started it’s missed a few fires and almost cuts out before warming up a little bit. After it’s warmed up is ran very well.

2) The first major problem started when I was riding on the motorway (doing about 55mph so fairly steady) for about an hour before the bike completely cut out - didn’t bog or sound like it had carb problems so I assumed it was electrical. I couldn’t get it going again so left it for about 10 minutes to cool off before trying to start it again. When I tried again it started perfectly and ran well, so I continued on the motorway for another 20 minutes before it did the same thing, except this time it fired up straight away again.
After another 20-30 mins driving a lot slower (trying to limp it home) it cut out once and for all and wouldn’t start again.

3) Since then, I’ve had it sitting and have managed to get it going, but quickly miss fires or dies. I’ve blown out the carb and made sure she’s getting fuel but it hasn’t made a difference.

After going through the manual and finding the suggested pick-up resistances and finding mine to be a lot higher, I’m thinking this could be the problem… I would be very interested and grateful for any input or suggestions, do the symptoms I’ve described sound like the pick-up is faulty?